Letter from the Board: Change is Coming

Dear friends,

Last year, we asked for feedback from our community of stakeholders on a simple question: Is Bread & Roses still relevant? And, after close to 40 years of being in this community, the answer from the 600 people who completed an online survey, attended a town hall meeting, or participated in a focus group or interview was a resounding yes.

Our constituents affirmed that the Delaware Valley needs Bread & Roses to continue to be a risk taker — to support social change efforts in their inception and to provide ongoing funding and technical support to small grassroots organizations. But our constituents also asked the organization to push itself. We must expand grant making, funding at larger levels. We must be more strategic, funding new and different pathways toward change. We must take leadership, creating opportunities to convene activists, organizers, and their allies across strategies and across issues.

To expand our scope and reach, we must be more intentional and more innovative about gathering and leveraging resources for social change. Moving forward, we need the wisdom and knowledge of our constituents to help us deepen our fundraising, particularly with the new generation of current and potential supporters.

We’re asking you to think about how you can be more engaged with this plan. The work now is to broaden the base of people who are active in this community and have a say about the future of this organization through giving money, raising money, offering active leadership, and sharing their voices. How can you envision increasing your commitment to Bread & Roses?

We know the work of Bread & Roses and its grantees is not just relevant but critical. Six hundred of you who crossed every boundary — age, race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic class — told us so.

We hope you will consider deepening your commitment to the organization. Tell us how you intend to give more of your resources and your passion to help the organization succeed in fueling movement building and social change throughout the Delaware Valley.